traditional, a. (n.)
(trəˈdɪʃənəl)
[f. tradition n. + -al1: cf. F. traditionnel, also med.L. trāditiōnālis (840) = trāditōrius traditory.]
A. adj.
1. a. Belonging to, consisting in, or of the nature of tradition; handed down by or derived from tradition.
| a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. vi. v. §7 In sundry traditional writings set down by their great interpreters and scribes. 1641 Milton Prel. Episc. Wks. 1851 III. 78 We esteem his traditionall ware, as lightly as Victor did. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. iv. xviii. §10 There can be no Evidence that any traditional Revelation is of divine Original, in the Words we receive it, and in the Sense we understand it, so clear, and so certain, as those of the Principles of Reason. 1814 Scott Wav. lxxii, The traditional records of the respectable and ingenious Mrs. Grant of Laggan. 1911 H. M. R. Murray Erthe upon Erthe Introd. 23 The popular traditional version of the poem tended to become modified. |
b. That is such according to tradition; asserted or related by tradition.
| 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. v. 246 This traditional selection of Gerizim as the scene of the meeting with Melchizedek is further confirmed by all the circumstances of the narrative. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. viii. 302 The heirlooms of a traditional past. 1879 S. C. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. xxii. 455 Quarentania, the traditional region of the forty days temptation. 1908 [Miss Fowler] Betw. Trent & Ancholme 19 A traditional ‘Rose of Sharon’ survives from our great-grandmother's days. |
c. Applied to a style of post-war jazz inspired chiefly by the bands of the earliest period of jazz, as opposed to modern jazz s.v. modern a. 3 a. Cf. trad n. 1.
| 1950 Downbeat 28 July 10/1 This..has been the particular gripe of the traditional jazz adherents. 1980 J. Wainwright Man of Law i. 7 A mutual fanaticism for traditional jazz... The small-group combinations beloved of three decades ago. |
† 2. Observant of, bound by tradition. Obs. rare.
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. i. 45 You are too sencelesse obstinate, my Lord, Too ceremonious, and traditionall... You breake not Sanctuarie, in seizing him. 1644 Milton Judgm. Bucer Wks. 1851 IV. 299 A pervers Age, eager in the reformation of Names and Ceremonies, but in realities as traditional and as ignorant as their forefathers. |
† B. n. A traditional belief or practice. rare—1.
| 1643 W. Greenhill Axe at Root 13 We stick too much to Mosaicalls, Prelaticalls, and Traditionalls. |
Hence traditionality (-ˈælɪtɪ), traditional quality or character; a traditional belief or principle.
| 1834 New Monthly Mag. XLI. 455 We may trace a traditionality, perhaps, in the style of representing Falstaff. 1840 Carlyle Heroes vi. (1858) 351 Many a man, doing loud work in the world, stands only on some thin traditionality, conventionality; to him indubitable, to you incredible. |